One of the effective ways to crack the “Three Rural Issues” and promote rural revitalization is to improve agricultural labor productivity (ALP). However, at this stage, improving China’s ALP is still facing many obstacles and bottlenecks. Promoting migrant workers returning home for entrepreneurship is an important breakthrough point for solving this problem. This paper regards the pilot policy of migrant workers returning home for entrepreneurship as a quasi-natural experiment and empirically investigates the influence of migrant workers returning home for entrepreneurship on ALP and explores its potential mechanism and heterogeneity using county area panel data from 2011–2019. It found the following: Firstly, the policy of migrant workers returning home for entrepreneurship significantly increases ALP. Secondly, migrant workers returning home for entrepreneurship indirectly leads to a rise in ALP through the promotion of agricultural mechanization production. Thirdly, the heterogeneity test demonstrates that migrant workers returning home for entrepreneurship purposes have a significant influence in enhancing ALP in the eastern areas, plains areas and non-agricultural strong areas. The findings of this paper not only provide an important real-world basis for the government to further support migrant workers returning home for entrepreneurship but also provide useful policy insights for the modernization and development of agriculture and rural areas.

Protecting cropland quality is a fundamental national policy that China must adhere to for the long term. This study examines the impact of market-oriented allocation of land factors on farmers’ cropland quality protection behaviors and its mechanism of action, based on survey data from 3804 farm households in the 2020 China Rural Revitalization Survey (CRRS). The study employs the Ordered Probit (O-probit) model, the mediated effect model, and other econometric tools to analyze the data. The study found that the market-oriented allocation of land factors can significantly promote farmers’ adoption of cropland quality protection behaviors. The robustness test supports this conclusion. The market-oriented allocation of land factors indirectly promotes the adoption of cropland quality protection by expanding the plot size and improving agricultural income. The analysis of heterogeneity indicates that farmers are more likely to adopt cropland quality protection behaviors in the plains, suburban areas, or areas with better developed labor markets. Therefore, it is essential to continue promoting market-oriented reforms of rural land factors, actively promoting land transfer policies, and guiding the development of agricultural operations towards scaling, specialization, and modernization. This will achieve the rational allocation of land resources. It is important to consider geographical variations in each area when implementing policies to guarantee effective utilization and protection of cropland.